The next hellsites. What makes us stay online. Bluesky. The allure of simplicity and the inexorable pull toward complex design features eroding our self-control.
I would love to know how you define addiction—I’ve read your book twice so I don’t mean that, I mean if there are different ways the internet addicts us, can you explain the different ways substances and behaviors do? Like some are dopaminergic, rewards based, do you have a simple way to break down types of addiction and the related behaviors substances? Does that make sense? 🫂
That's an awesome idea for a post! I will bank that for the future. But there are some things that I can say here.
A lot of my work is based in the idea that addiction is a process and not a status. It's not a thing that happens to us, but something we participate in.
In this context, I'd say that addiction is a strong dedication or devotion that impairs choice or control. So if talking about gambling, gaming, or whatnot, we participate in an activity.
There are a lot of ways to break down the processes involved in addiction. One of my favorites is the classic from John Kelly: feeling good (ie addictive behaviors as a way to access otherwise hard-to-access-otherwise sense of pleasure), feeling better, doing better (ie performance enhancement, even at level of say mitigating social anxiety, or perhaps as a way to socialize when can't socialize comfortably in other ways), and fitting in/compliance.
This is more of a functional breakdown, meaning it describes the actual function of the behavior, as opposed to the biochemical underpinnings
When people start to wake up from addictive behaviors, a key question we use as a prompt in psychotherapy is "what am I seeking here?" [from this behavior, this substance, this urge, etc] That to me is the most important way of breaking down the "types" of addiction in most cases.
Dear Carl Erik Fisher, thank you for sharing this. I had not encountered the research by Flayelle on "promoting addiction by design," to put it bluntly.
You mentioned disinhibition in online activity. I recently wrote about the online disinhibition effect on specific topics. My piece explains how we behave differently online, referencing John Suler's work, and discusses how reduced inhibition can benefit therapy under certain conditions.
I think this might resonate with you, and I’d love for you to read it:
If you haven’t interviewed her yet, I recommend Tracie Gardner for your podcast - she’s ED of the newly launched National Black Harm Reduction Network: https://www.nbhrn.org/about
I've built a library of dark patterns and sith psychology tricks that are used in Mobile/gacha games to talk about to other parents and cyber safety advocates. It was a product of some research I did when I was an expert witness in a murder trial, providing testimony about algorithmic radicalization and SEO/social media. Would love to talk to you and share what I've found.
I would love to know how you define addiction—I’ve read your book twice so I don’t mean that, I mean if there are different ways the internet addicts us, can you explain the different ways substances and behaviors do? Like some are dopaminergic, rewards based, do you have a simple way to break down types of addiction and the related behaviors substances? Does that make sense? 🫂
That's an awesome idea for a post! I will bank that for the future. But there are some things that I can say here.
A lot of my work is based in the idea that addiction is a process and not a status. It's not a thing that happens to us, but something we participate in.
In this context, I'd say that addiction is a strong dedication or devotion that impairs choice or control. So if talking about gambling, gaming, or whatnot, we participate in an activity.
There are a lot of ways to break down the processes involved in addiction. One of my favorites is the classic from John Kelly: feeling good (ie addictive behaviors as a way to access otherwise hard-to-access-otherwise sense of pleasure), feeling better, doing better (ie performance enhancement, even at level of say mitigating social anxiety, or perhaps as a way to socialize when can't socialize comfortably in other ways), and fitting in/compliance.
This is more of a functional breakdown, meaning it describes the actual function of the behavior, as opposed to the biochemical underpinnings
When people start to wake up from addictive behaviors, a key question we use as a prompt in psychotherapy is "what am I seeking here?" [from this behavior, this substance, this urge, etc] That to me is the most important way of breaking down the "types" of addiction in most cases.
Does that help?
Dear Carl Erik Fisher, thank you for sharing this. I had not encountered the research by Flayelle on "promoting addiction by design," to put it bluntly.
You mentioned disinhibition in online activity. I recently wrote about the online disinhibition effect on specific topics. My piece explains how we behave differently online, referencing John Suler's work, and discusses how reduced inhibition can benefit therapy under certain conditions.
I think this might resonate with you, and I’d love for you to read it:
https://wfmai.substack.com/p/unleashed-how-being-different-online?r=3row1i
Thanks! I'll take a look
I think an interview with Erik Zimmer host of “the one you feed”podcast would be amazing.
Eric is great! I'll ask him. We've done a couple of online events together and I really respect his work
If you haven’t interviewed her yet, I recommend Tracie Gardner for your podcast - she’s ED of the newly launched National Black Harm Reduction Network: https://www.nbhrn.org/about
Thank you very much!
I've built a library of dark patterns and sith psychology tricks that are used in Mobile/gacha games to talk about to other parents and cyber safety advocates. It was a product of some research I did when I was an expert witness in a murder trial, providing testimony about algorithmic radicalization and SEO/social media. Would love to talk to you and share what I've found.
Thanks Tarik, I'll message you!
Thank you for this! I found it while I was writing/researching a post about my own issues with social media. Shout-out here: https://shriekingcactus.substack.com/p/my-social-media-breakup-story